I have a 16'' 1-9 Fulton that shoots them (75gr.) just fine. It does not keyhole the 62 gr. Federal greentip s/c ammo, but it won't shoot them very well. I get a softball sized spread w/ 5 rds. at 100 with it. The 75's are between 1-1.5 inches most of the time shooting prone from a sandbag.

4th, the original AR15s/M16s issued in 'Nam had 1 in 14" twist bbls. This was barely enough to stabilize the 55 grain ball ammo then issued. It would fly straight through the air but when it hit flesh, they instantly lost stability and started tumbling end over end, often bending into a bannana shape and breaking up. Think minature boomerang buzzsaw flying through you at 3,000FPS with little chunks flying off. This caused the terrible wounds that the higher ups thought would allow a small .22 to equal the performance of the .30 it replaced. All was well until arctic temp testing in Alaska revealed that the colder, denser air caused the bullets to destabilize in flight and tumble in midair. As a result, one of the many "improvements" to the M16 was a change to a faster 1 in 12" twist. No more tumbling bullets in the arctic, but now the bullet was so stable it drilled a 1/4 hole straight through people and got it's rep as a poor stopper.

The newer SS109 bullets are designed to break apart in the middle when they hit, which makes 2 wound tracks and of course the pieces tend to tumble. In theory anyway, a better stopper over the 55gr ball. So the US Army adopts that round as the M855, then turns right around and adopts the M4 Carbine version to fire it with a 1 in 7" bbl twist. Unfortunately, that breakup effect is dependant on velocity, so the shorter M4 with it's lower muzzle velocity results in less than spectacular wounding with the new cartridge. The Jarheads kept their 20" bbls though, and report generally good results. There is supposed to be a new M4 specific round out, the M855A1 that is a copper and steel lead free design. Haven't seen any field reports on it yet, might be the solution, might not.

In any event, if ya ain't in the military any more the Hague prohibitions on HPs no longer apply. There are some great hollowpoints out there that will get the job done.

4th, the original AR15s/M16s issued in 'Nam had 1 in 14" twist bbls. This was barely enough to stabilize the 55 grain ball ammo then issued. It would fly straight through the air but when it hit flesh, they instantly lost stability and started tumbling end over end, often bending into a bannana shape and breaking up. Think minature boomerang buzzsaw flying through you at 3,000FPS with little chunks flying off. This caused the terrible wounds that the higher ups thought would allow a small .22 to equal the performance of the .30 it replaced. All was well until arctic temp testing in Alaska revealed that the colder, denser air caused the bullets to destabilize in flight and tumble in midair. As a result, one of the many "improvements" to the M16 was a change to a faster 1 in 12" twist. No more tumbling bullets in the arctic, but now the bullet was so stable it drilled a 1/4 hole straight through people and got it's rep as a poor stopper.

The newer SS109 bullets are designed to break apart in the middle when they hit, which makes 2 wound tracks and of course the pieces tend to tumble. In theory anyway, a better stopper over the 55gr ball. So the US Army adopts that round as the M855, then turns right around and adopts the M4 Carbine version to fire it with a 1 in 7" bbl twist. Unfortunately, that breakup effect is dependant on velocity, so the shorter M4 with it's lower muzzle velocity results in less than spectacular wounding with the new cartridge. The Jarheads kept their 20" bbls though, and report generally good results. There is supposed to be a new M4 specific round out, the M855A1 that is a copper and steel lead free design. Haven't seen any field reports on it yet, might be the solution, might not.

In any event, if ya ain't in the military any more the Hague prohibitions on HPs no longer apply. There are some great hollowpoints out there that will get the job done.

I was a 45B20 Small Arms Repair 69-72 in the Army. The 1 in 14 barrels had no lining and burned out the throats very quickly on full auto. When they came into the shop we replaced them with the newer 1 in 12 barrel that had a stellite liner or later around 1971 a chrome plated bore. All of the "black barrels" as we called them would throw nothing but keyholes even at 25 yards. That's probably where the M16 got the tumbling bullets legend.

Concerning the 75 gr bullet in the 1 in 9, bullet quality can be good enough that a bullet will be accurate in a twist not considered correct for it. I had a 1 in 7 that shot the light match bullets very accurately.

Super interesting info guys.

ironhead. Sorry we gave you all that work. But if we heard a twig snap 100 guys went full auto until the barrels glowed.
Is cherry red bad for a barrel?
I dont know if we hit a damn thing. But they stopped shooting back. So I guess my bullets were tumbling, hell I dont know.

"Man needs but two things to survive alone in the woods. A blow up female doll and his trusty old AK-47" - Thomas Jefferson 1781

Kernelkrink is correct on his account of the 1 in 14 twist. Ironhead, I do not doubt you saw many burned out barrels that caused bullet tumble, but a brand new rifle with a 1 in 14 twist will duplicate the terrible wounding potential the Viet Cong feared. The bullet does not tumble in flight, but it is so barely stabilized the slightest impact with anything, (including a body), would cause the bullet to go careening off course often exiting a body sideways causeing wounds seemingly disproportionate to the bullet's size. While the bullet was not reported to tumble in cold weather it did cause it to fail the accuracy test criteria set forth by the military. It was rather stupid of our military not to take advantage of this twist rate at least in Viet-Nam not just for it's wounding potential, but also the fear it generated in the Viet Cong. The 5.45x39mm has a similar wounding potential with it's built in tumble and still retains it's accuracy potential. We could have issued a different twist rate in cold weather battlegrounds should it have become necessary. I would intentionally seek a barrel with that 1 in 14 " rate should I ever purchase another upper for my Colt. Small hole in, small hole out sucks, especially for a lung shot. In the event of a lung hit it's very likely the person will not immeadiately realize he has been shot and shoot back at me.